Chanticleer

Seventy-five minutes away, in the Wayne-St. David, Pa., area, we spent three hours strolling around Chanticleer. (scroll down on the link and see the rooster we stumbled upon).  There are themes of water and art imitating nature.  One pedestrian bridge is made in the form of a fallen tree.  Bees and butterflies had long ago found this sanctuary, which a London newspaper describes as "planted to perfection."

milkweed filaments

Since I have the camera pointed to the earth, I'll snap this weed--milkweed. It's in our butterfly garden and is the required plant for the monarch butterfly to get from one creepy crawly stage to another.

inauguration day

Inauguration day dawns. Shades of blue, brown, white and green preside over a hushed butterfly garden. The butterflies are gone.

weeds to gardens

When there was still a little wild around the edges of fields, nature was full of adventures. Blades of grass taut between your thumbs sounded like an oboe. You could "smoke" dried lily stems. Maple seeds floated down like helicopters.

Milkweed (see pic) was everywhere, a favorite home for the Monarch butterfly. Milkweed was a weed growing in hedgerows and ditches. Now Amishland National Park (Monterey's environs) is intensely farmed to the last inch. When we put in the butterfly garden, milkweed was one of the plants put in.

The "milk" is merely the hairs attached to each seed. When the wind catches them right, they get one little thrill ride to where they will grow next year. You spread by flowing with nature. Change the economics and you change milkweed. Change a US president and you change milkweed. It could go the other way, too.